Ceropegia albipilosa (A.Lancaster ex Peckover) Bruyns

Bruyns, Peter V., Klak, Cornelia & Hanáček, Pavel, 2018, An account of Ceropegia sect. Chamaesiphon (Apocynaceae) in Moçambique with new records and two new species, Phytotaxa 364 (2), pp. 111-135 : 118

Ceropegia albipilosa (A.Lancaster ex Peckover) Bruyns ( Figs. 5 , 6)

Notes:—This species was described from material collected by Ralph Peckover near Chinhoyi in Zimbabwe at around 17º S. This is much further south than the present locality which is in NW Moçambique and close to the border with Tanzania. Peckover (1997) also mentioned that it had been observed near Mutare, further north and much further east in Zimbabwe by Alan Percy-Lancaster. Percy-Lancaster (1997) mentioned and illustrated it under “ B. sp. No 3 ’ from his collection from near Mutare. The type collection was made on a white quartzitic ridge while it had been observed in Brachystegia -woodland by Percy-Lancaster near Mutare (specimen in UNIN).

Peckover (1997) believed that the shallowly campanulate to nearly rotate, small flowers (here ± 6 mm diam.) and relatively long, slender pedicels (here 15–17 × <0.5 mm) indicated a close relationship to Ceropegia minima ( Dyer 1978: 447) Bruyns in Bruyns et al. (2017: 36), a particularly small species that has only been recorded from the vicinity of Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape, South Africa ( Dyer, 1983). Molecular investigations of these species ( Bruyns et al. 2015) showed that C. minima was part of a very well-supported clade of other small-flowered species (such as C. delicata ( Dyer 1976: 53) Bruyns in Bruyns et al. (2017: 35) and others) that are all quite local around Grahamstown. Ceropegia albipilosa , on the other hand (represented by the collection cited below), was part of a less strongly supported clade of species that are broadly associated with the wide region of southern Africa covered by Kalahari sands, the ‘Kalahari-group’. Clearly, its relationships are not with C. minima but rather with such species as C. incana ( Dyer 1976: 54) Bruyns in Bruyns et al. (2017: 36) and C. tavalla . In this context it is worth noting that Peckover (1997) reported hybrids between Ceropegia albipilosa and C. tavalla at the sites where he collected C. albipilosa . This may corroborate their close relationship.

The Moçambican collection cited below was found in white sand under Pterocarpus angolensis De Candolle (1825: 419) (kiaat) trees together with other geophytes.

Figures

FIGURE 5. Ceropegia albipilosa. A, side view of flower (scale of B = 1 mm); B, side view of dissected flower (scale 1 mm); C, face view of gynostegium (scale of B = 1 mm); D, pollinarium (scale of B = 0.25 mm). Drawn from: Bruyns 8627 (BOL, E).